Bullied schoolgirl tried to end it all

A TEENAGER is in intensive care after she attempted to take her own life last Wednesday after months of being “severely bullied” in school.

The eighteen-year-old fifth-year student tried to kill herself because of constant bullying by two other girls at her Co Carlow school and is now in Wexford General Hospital, after clinically dying for several minutes last Wednesday.

Her heartbroken mother said that her beautiful daughter suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her bullies. She said that her daughter had been pushed down a stairs, shoved into lockers and pushed along a corridor as well as sustaining relentless, constant cyber-bullying on social media.

On Wednesday, the girl could take no more and attempted to kill herself in her family home. Her younger brother found her and ran to his neighbour’s house for help. She had stopped breathing, but fortunately their neighbour knew what to do and carried out CPR on her while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. The teen was then rushed to Wexford General Hospital, where she was put on a ventilator and is in the intensive care unit, where her parents have kept vigil.

“She didn’t seem like herself last week. She was like a shell. I tried to talk to her about it and she told me that they (the bullies) were still getting to her through social media,” her mother told The Nationalist.

“They got into her head and she struggling to get back to normal. She said last week that she couldn’t cope with it all.”

The two bullies hacked into the girl’s Facebook page and made comments about her sexuality and said that she was HIV positive. At another stage they said that she should be “shot and hang” (sic).

The trouble began back in September, when she came to the attention of the two girls. It consisted of physical, psychological and cyber-bullying but she managed to hide it from her parents until December.

Things began to intensify in the New Year and, four weeks ago, her mother allowed her to stay at home from school to give her a break from the stress and harassment. Just before she was due to return to school, however, Jessica was once again reached by the two bullies on social media. She was terrified of returning to the school, so her mother pledged to find her a new one. She had secured a position for her to start afresh next September in a Co Wexford school.

By this time, though, it was all too much for the 18-year-old, and last Wednesday she tried to commit suicide. The family are now praying that their beautiful daughter will fully recover.

“It’s early days – we have to see how it goes,” her mother said.

Her heartbroken mother is adamant that bullying should be tackled head on by school authorities and warned other parents to be vigilant with their children about bullying and the 24/7 presence of social media.

“My daughter’s a quiet child, so she was an easy target for them. It was so easy for them to continue bullying her,” the mother said. “She came off the ventilator at the weekend and she managed to speak to us. She told us why she did it.

“This has got to be stamped out. We need to stand up and make noise about it. This is what they drove her to. It’s scandalous!”